A judge has sent a convicted drunk driver to jail for a crash that killed an elderly woman.
"A Jefferson Parish judge... sentenced Gerald McKnight to five years in prison," District Attorney's Spokesman Paul Purpura said in a Monday news release.
McKnight admitted to causing a crash on the Westbank.
"McKnight, 42, pleaded guilty as charged to vehicular homicide in the Dec. 15, 2022 death of Tricia Cook. The 72-year-old woman was a passenger in the rear seat of a taxicab that was traveling west on the elevated Westbank Expressway near Lafayette Street."
Purpura says McKnight was drunk when he ran into the back of the cab that was stopped in the right lane, waiting to exit the expressway in traffic congestion.
"After hearing victim-impact testimony, 24th Judicial District Court Judge Jacqueline Maloney sentenced McKnight to five years for vehicular homicide and six months for the vehicular negligent injury. She ran the sentences concurrently."
